Archive for November, 2009

Yesterday I went Black Friday shopping, and today I am trying to recover from it. While I was shopping, it made me think that I wished that there was a Black Friday for raffle tickets lol. There are certain times of the year when raffles are more common than other times, but there is not a certain day like there is for most retailers. It made me wonder if maybe there was a day when a certain place would host an event that offered really great raffles.

I think this day would probably work best during the Christmas season because that’s the time of year that people love to spend money. It would have to be majorly advertised and we would have to get some great backers for the products that we raffle off. The items that would raffle off would have be tremendously great gifts to give to other people. The price of the raffle ticket would have to be lower than usual, so that people feel like they are getting a good deal if they do win.

I think what would make this event even greater is if all of the proceeds went to a charity that supported families at Christmas time. How great would that be?! That would really urge people who would normally buy a raffle ticket to buy not just one, but a few. More importantly, we could really help out families who are in need at Christmas time. I think that I’m really going to start working on this so that we can do it next year at this time.

If there’s one commodity that’s not going out of style any time soon its Twilight. Everywhere you go, you see Twilight series merchandise. With New Moon coming out soon, there’s a ton of New Moon stuff around. I just went into Bigg’s the other day and they have New Moon party supplies! I am a Twilight fan, so I don’t mind all the hype around the movies and books. I also think that because the Twilight series is so popular right now, and because New Moon is coming out very soon, that it would be a good idea for any organization in need of a fundraiser to raffle of a few pairs of tickets to see New Moon.

I’ve been suggesting this idea to all of my clients. One of the restaurants I work with is actually raffling the tickets off with 2 dollars off the ticket price. I thought that that was a great idea because it means that people are more likely to buy raffle tickets to win the tickets to the movie rather than buy the tickets themselves. You can raffle off tickets to the midnight showing or just an any day showing of it. I think either way, you will have success with this kind of raffle.

What might help your raffle with the movie tickets is if you include some New Moon merchandise with the tickets. Just about any store you walk into sells New Moon merchandise, but you can go try to find the most unique stuff and put them into a gift basket and raffle that off with the tickets. You can also plan a raffle event for the raffling off of this stuff where you have food and drinks and a showing of the Twilight movie. This will help get people hyped up and want to invest their time and money into winning the tickets. Plus its just really fun. There’s a new moon rising…

I have been to so many bridal showers over the past few weekends, so I’ve naturally been thinking about how you could do a raffle at a bridal shower. I know this might seem like a stretch, but stick with me here. Bridal showers can tend to be redundant. At pretty much every shower you do the same thing: mix and mingle, eat, open presents, play two shower games, and say goodbye. Typically the shower games are all alike too. I don’t think that there’s a bridal shower game that I haven’t played at this point. It would be nice if there was something to really make the shower unique, other than who the shower is being thrown for. I think that a bridal shower raffle could be just that.

Here is my idea for a bridal shower raffle: Since every attendee at bridal showers brings a gift, but its not always off the registry this might be a good way to ensure that it is. Include in the invitation for the shower directions on the raffle. For every person that buys something off of the registry, they get entered into a raffle at the shower. Obviously it will be necessary for the person hosting the shower to have the registry list so that they can be sure that the gift is off of the registry. If a person buys more than one thing off the registry, they can have their name entered however many times as the number of items they bought off the registry. This will encourage the guests to get creative with their gifts. At the shower, after the bride has opened all the gifts, the raffle can be done. The winner of the raffle should win a nice prize, like a $25 gift card or something. It should be mentioned in the invitation what the prize will be so that the guests will be motivated.

I think that this could be an exciting game for a bridal shower and it will help the guests to get into what’s going on at the shower. There are many different ways that this raffle can be done at the shower. It doesn’t have to depend on the gifts that are brought. It can be dependent on how many times a certain bridal-type word is said, and every time they say it, they get one of their three entries in the raffle taken out. This would make for a very eventful shower. Let the creativity with this idea roam. You can help your guests experience something outside of the norm while supporting the bride.

There is a topic that I haven’t brought up on here yet that is actually very essential to running a raffle. I usually deal with behind-the-scenes stuff, but when I am talking to either potential or existing clients I always tell them that their raffle will have much more success if they put a lot of effort into advertising for it. Publicity can be your best friend when it comes to having a raffle. Advertising is a priority for raffles, and needs to be treated as such for any group or business that is interested in organizing one.

For whatever reason, most people feel like advertising is too much work. Yes, publicizing your raffle is going to take some effort. However, when you share the load and delegate certain aspects of the advertising with other people in your group or business it becomes an easily attained goal. You can go to plenty of routes when advertising. Making flyers that hang all over the city and that you pass out to everyone you meet are one way to go. Another is to do online advertising through Facebook, Myspace, or any raffle websites. You can use your business’ website to do advertising on as well. Also, you can put adds in your local newspaper. How about calling everyone in your business directory to let them now about the raffle? Uncomfortable maybe, but definitely effective. How about doing all of these things?!

Don’t let advertising your raffle fall to the wayside or become an insurmountable giant. While it can be time consuming, it is time well spent. Also, you will receive back in funds what you put into advertising for your raffle. There are lots of ideas you can use, the ones I gave you are just a few. Spread the work of publicity out among your group, and you’ll definitely be able to accomplish a successful raffle.